THE ANGLO- VENEZUELAN BOUNDARY DISPUTE
Guiana is a name that was applied three centuries ago to an exten
sive and ill-defined tract along the coast between the Amazon and
the Orinoco. This has come, in course of time, to be possessed by
French, Dutch, and English. The easternmost is French Guiana or
Cayenne, whose Devils Island Dreyfus has made famous or infamous.
Next west is Dutch Guiana or Surinam, and west of it is British
Guiana, formerly the united colony of Essequibo and Demerara.
Most of the part yet farther west, which was sometimes called Spanish
or Venezuelan Guiana, has been awarded to Great Britain.
Great efforts were made by Spain three centuries ago to conquer
and possess Guiana, a region reported and believed to be fabulously
rich in gold. On the shores of a vast mythical sea rose a vast mythical
town, El Dorado, presided over by a mythical, gilded king. Raleigh
sought to conquer this country and its supposed wealth for his queen,
Elizabeth; but the Spaniards contested his advance. His son was
killed in the assault upon Santo Thome. He returned to England,
was accused by the Spanish minister of piracy, and by order of King
James beheaded. But, though he wrote a book about Guiana which
set the imagination of Europe on fire, little progress was made in
penetrating or exploring it. And why? The answer is easy. The
dense forests offered to the white traveler an almost impenetrable
barrier. These were traversed by savage animals and yet more savage
men, the ferocious, man-eating Caribs. The only practicable route to
the interior was by the rivers; but the region is a bench country,
rising, as one penetrates it, by a series of steps or benches. Thus it
happens that, ascending the rivers (other than the Orinoco), the border
land of alluvium on the coast is hardly passed before the traveler
meets a cataract or rapid or series of rapids blocking the way.
Patiently carrying or dragging his wood-skin canoe through dense
woods around the obstacle, he may paddle a short distance against a
strong current only to find another cataract and yet another in weari
some succession. To penetrate the interior through the water-soaked
and swampy forest jungle is well-nigh impossible. To penetrate it by
the streams is only possible in small boats, and then with difficulty
and danger. These are the conditions and 'these the reasons why the
world was so long in gaining its small store of knowledge about the
interior of Raleigh's wonderland, Guiana.
Origin of Title.-NeitherVenezuela nor Great Britain holds in South
America by original title. Venezuela derives her title from Spain,
a title acquired by war, with resulting conquest and cession. Great